I've been playing guitar for close to 20 years and have always wanted a Rhoads V from Jackson. Finally have one and am more than happy with it. For the money, this is a really solidly built guitar. I'm not completely sold on the Duncan designed pups, but I'm kinda partial to Duncan Blackouts. All in all this is definitely a good buy.

I've been playing guitar for four years and played multiple guitars but none had the perfect metal tone till I played this guitar. It has an edgy, cut-throat sound and has amazing sustain and the playability is very fast and shred worthy! I like it better than my Ibanez RG series, which I never thought I would say.

I bought this guitar online and swapped out the duncan designed pickups, which aren't so bad...not that good either... for a Dean Dimetime pickup in the neck and a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, along with changing the stock machine heads with some grover mini-rotomatics. the changes made a huge difference and now this thing dominates. a great guitar for a novice/intermediate level player who is looking for something a little higher than entry level and doesn't mind doing a little customization. theres a bit of fret buzz, but its very little and could just be my set-up skills. The paint job on mine, and some of the other reviews I've read, is not that good. near the tip of the upper wing there is what looks like a small dent, which is actually an uneve spot in the paint. still, jacksons X series accomplished what they set out for, making a quality affordable axe.

Extreamly nice guitar for price. I put ghs 10 gauge strings on it the day I got it which improved the sound a lot. Aside from the strings it sounds amazing, it's light, solid body, the action is way smooth, and the neon green with black trim will have heads Turning and friends drooling for sure!!!!!!

Overall I'm really impressed. I wasn't sure what to expect considering the pricetag, but I couldn't be happier. Anyone want to buy my RR5FR? Guitar has a lighter body than my RR5FR, but still very well balanced. The neck however is much, much thinner than the one on my RR5FR, which makes the guitar really comfortable to play. I love the neck on this one so much, I rarely ever pick the RR5FR up anymore. The action was a mess out of the box, but nothing a trussrod adjustment couldn't fix. The action is low now and plays like butter. Also, not mentioned in the product description, it came from the factory with Jim Dunlop Dual Design straplocks. Guitar plays really well. The Duncan Designed pickups do leave a bit to be desired. I replaced them with the Duncan SH-6 set, and now it sounds just the way you would think a guitar that looks like this should sound.Neck through construction and a flawless finish for under $500... unheard of!!!!

If you are a fan of "V" type guitars, Randy Rhoads, shredding, or like me, think Samoth's guitar while playing in "Emperor" looked mean as heck, give this one a try. I'm very pleased with it so far and would recommend it to a friend. It is a lot of guitar for the money.This neck-through Rhoads balances very well for such a light guitar - no neck dive like the bolt on models (they really should relocate the front strap peg to one of the neck screw locations on the bolt on models). Two Duncan Designed pickups perform much better than expected with good articulation and 'djent' when palm muting the lower strings. The pups do tend to squeal a bit more than standard SDs i have in other guitars, though. Control route cover and bridge plate appeared to be plastic in pictures but are actually metal with a black iodized type coating. Tuners perform well enough for non-grover/schaller and won't need to be immediately replaced. The finger board was constructed of a rather nice piece of rosewood and the shark-fin inlays look much better in person than they do in any picture I've seen online (not plastic-y, they appear to have depth). Back of neck is painted, fyi. Action out of the box was SUPER low and intonation was just a bit off, typical of just about any brand new guitar with a sub-1k price tag. Swapped strings to 11-48s, adjusted the bridge a bit and this guitar got MEAN!The weight, balance, sound and playability of this instrument is excellent for the price. That said, there were some cosmetic issues that would likely not be present on an American made version of this guitar including: binding being a bit messy near the nut, paint appears a bit thin and there were some spots near where the neck meets the body that appeared to not have been buffed out properly and were not as glossy as the rest of the guitar. When playing this guitar I completely forget about any of the minor flaws as the neck feels so nice. I never played a Jackson before and am really impressed with the shape and feel of the neck contour and the fantastic neck joint.When I was looking for a new guitar, I stumbled upon Jacksons and was quite impressed with their "feel". I was considering a RR3 or KE3 and accidentally stumbled upon this little gem. I'm guessing this is Jackson's way to compete with the similarly priced LTDs targeting the same general audience and if they can keep the quality up, they're going to give them a serious run for their money.